This is the personal blog of Sarah Marslender. A couple years ago, I moved to Kuwait with my family. This blog is a place for me to update family and friends. Here I talk about running, parenting, faith, teaching, cooking and baking, reading and writing, exploring, and learning to be content. Sometimes I overthink. You can call me on that.

Sunday, December 6, 2009

stress fracture prevention

I just read this interesting article about stress fracture prevention in the NY Times online Sunday Magazine. Considering my tibia were speckled with healed stress fractures (stress reactions, one doctor called them) at an MRI I had a few years ago, I was happy to read two basic ways to reduce my chances of getting another one:

1. Increase my calf muscle mass (even by just a little bit!)

2. Shorten my stride

I've actually been playing around with my stride for, oh, five years, trying to find a stride that will keep me running into my sixties (seventies? eighties?). It's difficult to judge my own stride. I think I'll ask Justin to play sports medicine doctor and film me front, side, and back so I can take a look. Right now, I'm feeling good with my stride but a couple of days ago (after reading an article about economical strides), I shortened my stride a bit and felt like I could run faster with just that slight change. Very interesting to the runner me.